Tintagel Castle
Interesting facts
- In 2017 archaeologists found a 7th-century slate window ledge scratched with a mix of Latin, Greek and Celtic words, names and symbols.
- A slate found in 1998, known as the Artognou stone, carries an incised Latin inscription from the centuries after Roman rule.
- The imported Mediterranean pottery found here may represent one or more complete shiploads, perhaps six or seven hundred amphorae.
- Ten small Roman coins, from Tetricus I in the 270s to Constantius II in the mid-4th century, have turned up, yet no Roman building has been proven.
- Richard of Cornwall got the headland in 1225 by trading away the manor of Merthen for it.
- Geoffrey of Monmouth never says Arthur was born at Tintagel or visited it later; his story only places Arthur's conception here.
- Tintagel is absent from the Domesday Book, the name first appears in the 13th century, and one scholar suggested Geoffrey of Monmouth coined it.
- The village itself was called Trevena until the Post Office began using the name Tintagel in the 1850s.
- Many records of the 1930s excavations were lost when excavator Ralegh Radford's house in Exeter was bombed during the Second World War.
- Thomas Hardy set a verse play here, The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall at Tintagel in Lyonnesse, published in 1923.
Why it is worth it
Tintagel is the place where Cornish rock, medieval romance and genuine archaeology meet. The castle ruins cling to both sides of a narrow neck of land between the mainland cliffs and a rocky headland known as Tintagel Island, above the Atlantic on Cornwall's north coast. Since 2019 a slender steel footbridge, shortlisted for the Stirling Prize, has spanned the gap where the land bridge has fallen away, so visitors can walk straight across to the island.
The island was important long before any castle. Between about 450 and 600 it was a high-status settlement, probably a seasonal seat of the rulers of Dumnonia, and excavations have turned up more imported Mediterranean pottery โ amphorae and fine red tableware โ than any other site of that period in Britain or Ireland; digs in 2016โ17 uncovered the outlines of buildings of the 5th or 6th century and a slate bearing writing. The stone castle came later. Richard, Earl of Cornwall, acquired the site in 1225 and built here from 1233, deliberately in an old-fashioned style: he wanted a link with the Arthurian stories that Geoffrey of Monmouth had set at Tintagel about a century earlier, where Uther Pendragon, disguised by Merlin, entered the fortress and Arthur was conceived. Richard's successors lost interest, the roof of the great hall had gone by the 1330s, and erosion slowly ate at the isthmus.
What remains are walls of slate and rubble on the mainland courtyards and on the island plateau, the foundations of the great hall, early medieval house platforms, a medieval chapel, the Iron Gate guarding the landing place, and 'King Arthur's Footprint', a hollow in the rock at the island's highest point. The Victorians made it a place of pilgrimage for lovers of Tennyson's Idylls of the King. English Heritage, which looks after it for the Duchy of Cornwall, has added a larger-than-life statue, Gallos, a compass sculpture and a carved face of Merlin by the sea cave named after him below. The paths are steep and exposed, and the site sometimes closes in high winds; coastal erosion is an ongoing threat.
Getting there
The castle is at Tintagel village on Cornwall's north coast, between Padstow and Bude; the nearest sizeable town is Bodmin, about 22 km south. Cornwall Airport Newquay (NQY) is about 30 km away. There are pay-and-display car parks in the village, about 600 metres from the site; allow at least half an hour to walk down from them to the footbridge entrance.
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From the encyclopaedia
Tintagel Castle is a medieval fortification located on the peninsula of Tintagel Island adjacent to the village of Tintagel (Trevena), North Cornwall in the United Kingdom. The site was possibly occupied in the Romano-British period, as an array of artefacts dating from this period have been found on the peninsula, but as yet no Roman-era structure has been proven to have existed there. It was settled during the early medieval period, when it was probably one of the seasonal residences of the regional king of Dumnonia. A castle was built on the site by Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall in the 13th century, during the High Middle Ages. It later fell into disrepair and ruin.
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